You’d never know there was a budgetary crisis from tracking Fire Marshal’s purchases of trinkets, cookware, sponsorships

Word from inside the Louisiana Office of State Fire Marshal (LOSFM) is that state auditors have come calling and are taking a close look at agency expenditures.

Without being privy to any specific findings by the Legislative Auditor’s Office, it’s a pretty safe bet that the bean counters are going to find that the LOSFM likes to worm its way around the rules by making multiple purchases in amounts that fly—barely—under the radar, as it were, of minimum amounts for which quotes are required.

Other expenditures that might be questioned by auditors include meals at Mike Anderson’s Restaurant, purchases from a grocery store, a seafood market, a deli, a cookware outlet, association memberships and convention fees,

The LOUISIANA PROCUREMENT CODE (LPC: that would be R.S. 39:1551-1755 for whoever is wearing military medals at LOSFM these days] does not require competitive bidding for purchases that are $5,000 or less. Purchases that are greater than $5,000, and up to $15,000, require quotes from at least three vendors by telephone, fax or other means. (emphasis ours.)

LouisianaVoice recently spent the better part of a week poring over and scanning stack upon stack of purchasing records by the fire marshal’s office. Several years’ worth of receipts, no less.

If LOSFM is an indication, the so-called state budgetary crisis is largely a myth and U.S. Sen. John Kennedy, erstwhile State Treasurer, was correct when he said the state didn’t have a revenue problem; it has a spending problem. (Kennedy, alas, not knowing when to call it a day, would go on to talk about drinking weed killer and quoting a mysterious Louisiana adage known only to him about how we should love one another but should also carry a handgun).

State Fire Marshal Butch Browning apparently makes a lot of photocopies and prints volumes of documents, judging from the toner purchases made by his office. But those notwithstanding, it became fairly obvious from our findings that Browning, his second in command, Brant Thompson, and other top honchos like to split their purchases so that they fall just under that magical mystical $5,000 amount.

We even stumbled across one purchase of $4,999.99 on September 6, 2016, from Broad Base of Harvey for the purchase of 10 washers and 10 dryers for the agency’s laundry trailer. Apparently, they learned well from the Jindal administration which would issue state contracts for $49,999 so as to avoid the laborious approval of the old Office of Contractual Review, a requirement that kicked in at $50,000 and above.

LOSFM also liked a well-dressed agent. In 2015, it spent $33,490 with Guidry Uniforms of Lafayette, with at least three of those purchases being in increments of $5,000 and another for $5,000.01 (oops).

On April 7, 2015, the fire marshal’s office spent $2,558.59 with Guidry’s and immediate recorded another purchase that same day for $685.83. Six days later, on April 13, another $5,000 was spent with Guidry’s, all apparently without benefit of the required three quotes as there were no such quotes provided along with the receipts.

In 2014, records were found for expenditures with Guidry’s of $4,531.53 (September 15) and $5,000 (November 14). Another $17,600 was spent at Guidry’s in 2016, including individual purchases of $1,069 on March 31 and payments on outstanding invoices of $4,932.67 in April 12 and $2,517.61 in April 20.

“Agencies should maintain documentation of each quote received,” the state law says. “Procurement amounts may not be artificially divided in order to circumvent the LPC.” (emphasis ours) Quotes may be taken by telephone, facsimile or other means. The quotes must, however, be in writing if the price exceeds $5,000. Awards shall be made to the lowest responsive quotation.

Other apparent split purchases made without obtaining the required three quotations:

Tri-Parish Communications of Baton Rouge: March 10, 2015 ($1,870.75), March 16 ($1,876 and $382.80), March 18 ($107.80 and $148.30), March 19 ($232.85) and March 24 ($274.85 and $359.85) for a total of $5,253.20.

Louisiana Office Solutions of Baton Rouge: January 14, 2016 ($269.32), January 21 ($2,668), and January 22 ($2,828) for a total of $5,765.32.

Preferred Data Voice Networks of Baton Rouge: April 5, 2016 ($1,873.60), April 12 ($3,248.80), April 19 ($4,970.80) for a total of $10,093.20 with all three purchases precisely one week apart (clever).

Quality Lapel Pins of Littleton, Colorado (we’ll have more on them later): February 21, 2016 ($3,569), March 9 ($3,569—yep, identical amounts in two separate purchases barely two weeks apart), and March 30 ($1,040) for a total of $8,178 over a span of five weeks.

Quality Lapel Pins: June 27 ($4,862), July 13 ($921.02), and July 18 ($1,828.20) for a total of $7,611.22 purchased over a period of three weeks.

Goodyear Commercial Tire of Baton Rouge: March 26, 2015 ($3,484.17) and March 30 ($2,677.43), a total of $6,161.60.

Ferrara Fire Apparatus of Holden: December 11, 2014 ($4,985), December 12 ($2,747.52), and December 22 ($2,190.14), a total of $9,922.66.

Ferrara Fire Apparatus: April 2, 2015 ($3,784.38) and April 8 ($1,712.16), a total of $5,496.54.

Ferrara Fire Apparatus: March 18, 2016 ($4,828), April 14 ($3,196 and $1,164), and April 26 ($4,342), a total of $8,702 (grand total of split purchases: $24,121.20). Additionally, LOSFM had individual purchases from Ferrara of another $10,321 in the years 2014-2016, including one purchase of $4,985, just $15 below the amount requiring quotations.

Teeco Safety of Shreveport: November 6, 2014 ($4,731.50) and November 14 ($4,994.50), a total of $9,726.

Teeco Safety: December 5, 2014 ($3,979.30) and December 11 ($3,248.32), a total of $7,227.62.

Teeco Safety: February 13, 2015 ($3,525, $564.30, and $711.76) and February 19 ($546), a total of $5,347.06.

Teeco Safety: November 6, 2015 ($2,763), November 12 ($4,763.14), and November 16 ($1,413.96), a total of $8,940.10.

Teeco Safety: December 18, 2015 ($3,606.79 and $179.76) and December 22 ($2,601.31), a total of $6,387.86.

Teeco Safety: September 9, 2016 ($4,587.96), September 14 ($3,433.92), and September 30 ($1,919.76), a total of $9,941.64. LOSFM also made individual purchases of $4,941.98 on October 30, 2014, and $4,777.80 on April 8, 2015, and had three purchases totaling $4,804 in December 2016.

Documents provided by LOSFM indicated that an occasional quotation was obtained from Teeco prior to purchases, but there were no quotes from other vendors.

Besides the four purchases of $5,000 each from Guidry’s and the $4,999.99 from Broad Base, the fire marshal’s office also chalked up at least a dozen one-time purchases that fell just below the $5,000 amount requiring quotations. Those purchases ranged from $4,000 to $4,900, $4,990 and $4,999—all without benefit of quotations.

That $4,900 expenditure was for a deposit to LR3 Consulting for creation of the “Louisiana Firefighter Proud” website. The State of Louisiana has IT personnel to perform such tasks.

Over a relative short span, from May 9 to September 22, 2016, LOSFM spent $9,600 at Best Buy on such items as juice boxes, computer and video cable, and other computer-related equipment.

Another $8,754 was spent on association memberships and sponsorship fees for conventions, records show. Those included:

$1,300 for 2015 memberships in the Merchant International Association of Arson Investigators (IAAI);

On December 3, 2015, LOSFM employees were treated to a Christmas meal at Mike Anderson’s Seafood Restaurant at a cost of $2,195. Another $1,014 was spent at LeBlanc’s Food Stores and $126.62 was dropped at Tony’s Seafood Market & Deli in January 2016, and $479.85 was spent at Jason’s Deli in April 2016.

On January 21, 2015, $895 was spent at Krazy Kajun Cookware for the purchase of a 30-gallon roll-around combo set, including the pot and accompanying paddles—apparently to compliment the purchase later that year (May 18) of a special service trailer for “emergency field food service” to support USAR events/emergencies. (A quick Google search of USAR came up with U.S. Army Reserve and Urban Search and Rescue.)

But that pales in comparison to more than $62,000 spent by the Louisiana Fire Marshal’s Office between May 2014 and September 2016 on such things as badges, ribbons, plaques, coins, medallions, stadium cups, lapel pins, and decals—all without benefit of obtaining quotations. A couple of those nudged right up against that $5,000 limit:

$5,000 with Quality Lapels and Pins in February 2016, $7,138 in two purchases of identical $3,569 on February 21, 2016 and again 16 days later, on March 9, and $4,862 on June 27;

$4,617 from Rebel Graphics of Baton Rouge in June 2016, and

$4,997 with Action Flags of Baton Rouge (no invoice date).

There was no indication if any of those purchases were for military medals to be worn by Browning.

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20 Responses

Ah, the tradition of corrupt Louisiana politics lives on and permeates many, many agencies. Thank you for your vigilance in exposing this. I fear that it is in the political DNA from the local municipality upward.

I am going to go out on a limb and guess you will not see a response to this post from the LOSFM.

My take, based on 21 years experience analyzing state budgets:

When I first became a budget analyst in Louisiana’s state budget office, we (the DOA budget analysts) reviewed purchases, contracts, and even personnel transactions. Then came the Treen administration with a new philosophy: LET THE MANAGERS MANAGE rather than trying to micromanage from the state level. Thus began a spiral downward from oversight that has led to the current situation where THE MANAGERS ARE ALLOWED TO MANAGE almost everything with little oversight. Funding is no longer controlled at the line-item of expenditure level. Managers can move money and make spending decisions in the most effective way to give the taxpayers the most bang for the bucks they have within generous and broad limits..

Good idea, right? Well it might be if ANYBODY WAS HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR DOING SO. Unfortunately, I have seen little, if any, evidence anybody is bothering to do this. Have you ever heard the expression, “Trust Me”? Do legislative auditor reports, news articles, TV investigative reports, LouisianaVoice and other reports we see on a daily basis indicate the trust we are placing in these “managers” justified?

I know my answer. I also think it is a very very big reason so many people are unwilling to vote for taxes.

P. S. I had breakfast this morning with former State Fire Marshal and state representative V. J. Bella. We did not talk about the LOSFM (and it is our practice to not do so for professional reasons). We did talk about a proposal I made in 1990 to create a state office of efficiency and effectiveness by carving out 5-6 already employed (and not to be replaced) budget analysts to function as a team doing management oversight agency by agency throughout state government. V. J. pointed out this would be even easier today because of the enhanced Legislative Auditor’s staff and the number of performance audits they have done and continue to do. These very reports could be the basis for prioritizing the team’s efforts. As I have said many times before, the Legislative Auditor is the only real watchdog we have any more, in my opinion, but his efforts are, by their nature and appropriately after-the-fact. The management team I am talking about would be proactive in attempting to prevent future poor practices.

This could work. Will such a thing ever happen? We can always hope (unless we are big-time cynics).

…the state law says. “Procurement amounts may not be artificially divided in order to circumvent the LPC.”
Your superb research and documentation clearly exposes violation of law. Therefore, there is no reason or excuse for not holding responsible parties liable for their illegal actions. So Governor Edwards, Director Leblanc, Attorney General, Legislative Auditor and Legislators, step up and do your duty to “Serve and Protect” the citizens of the State. Bring guilty parties (Browning and Thompson) to justice. Replace and imprison them.

I don’t know if there are goats at the mansion but I know there are chickens. So John Bel, are you waiting to see pictures of him breeding your chickens? It’s sure not beneath him! Ask some of his employees!

This is a shame I know many great employees working in the agency. A few people, mostly upper management,failed to respect their position and the agency. The positive side would be to get a person who has a desire to return the agency to the level of respect it had before Browning was appointed. Most of the people who have no respect for the agency are in unclassified positions; they can be put on the street. At this point the new marshal gets people who have a desire to bring the SFMO to level of integrity it had before. This would be a win for the agency.

I am a former employee. I would come back to the agency if Butch Browning, Brant Thompson, Lance Carruth and a few of the upper management were forced to leave. This would be a great start for the agency. The agency should be allowed to promote from within for the Fire Marshal’s position. They had a great leader for a few weeks when Butch left because of wearing military pins on his uniform. That person was Felicia Cooper. She has the respect of the personnel and the agency as a whole.

They also need to demote all the so called supervisors that used to Arson investigators. They know nothing about the inspection side of the job. They have to call other deputies in the field to get the answers to questions for the new deputies. As a supervisor, they should know all aspects of the job for which they supervise employees. The Arson investigators who are now supervisors were promised those positions ahead of qualified personnel because of Butch Browning.

You hit the nail on the head. Those few days with Felicia in charge was wonderful. We all felt as if weights were lifted off of our chests. Deputies were actually smiling again. But it was over way too soon and things went from bad to horrible after Butch came back. Felicia is the epitome of a leader. She could lead the Agency back to where it should be. Boyd Petty should be the Assistant Marshal. With those two in charge, all deputies that left would return.

As a former Deputy, I was very proud of the duties I had, until I saw from the inside how horrible things were ran. Butch Browning, Brant Thompson, and Lance Carruth, especially LANCE CARRUTH, need to GO! I have never been treated so poorly for the success that I accomplished while working at the OSFM. Carruth has been promoted by Thompson and Browning 3 times in the last 3 years, while the true working DEPUTIES do all the work and supervisors get the credit. Carruth has very many skeletons in the closet that this site could have a field day with. He is a disgrace to the State of Louisiana.

Carruth harassed and be little the Lady Deputies, had the secretary in Lafayette giving special favors to him, he would drive one of the old style unmarked Tahoes to her house, most the Deputies knew what he was up to. He needs to go should have been charged with sexual harassment.

Yes, female deputies were extremely harassed by him. I remember one Deputy recorded the harassing phone conversation from him but resigned because she knew Browning and Thompson wouldn’t do anything. They were taking care of Carruth because he was providing Browning with entertainment (read between the lines) when they would travel out of town, and out of state.

A government agency loaded down with crooks, who would have thought ! The ignorance of the human species thinking that any endeavor that involves money will not be corrupt is living a dream. A complete redo is coming and soon.

Ferrara – keep digging Tom – you’re on to something! (Wink Wink) Is it ethical to purchase from a “company” that was also on the LSFM employee payroll??? I do recall a training class that said we could not purchase from employees … That was ALOT of expensive equipment that was issued to employees and when I left the department, mine was still in the plastic, in the big old fancy duffle bag that arrived in. Why? Because it was never required. Why does a “building inspector/compliance investigator/hot water heater inspector/home day care inspector/amusement ride inspector” need fire equipment?

Time has come to resolve all the problem and bring the SFMO back to the outstanding office it was prior the current regime. Back to specialized divisions that worked to provide citizens with a safe place to live, work, and play. Thanks

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